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| "Winter Arrives" Copyright 2018. Photoartdb. All rights reserved. |
It seems like winter wanted to wait so it could roar into Southwest Missouri with an entrance worthy of someone distinctively important who needs to be paid attention and honored. It's somewhat like the way some politicians walk into a room or down a hallway, expecting all ears to be attuned to their wisdom and sage guidance. Not exactly the way they're being perceived these days in Missouri or on the national scene with one scandal after another diverting attention from the important concerns of the people they were elected to serve: healthcare, economic issues, new foreign markets for our farming community - especially the small independent farmer - retaining our clean water sources and protecting their cleanliness, and local control of our farmlands and protecting the rural citizens' health.
Since moving here now almost four years ago, temperatures have not dropped into the minus numbers one time until this year. Although the snow and icy moisture is welcomed, the bitter cold contributing to record flu numbers with children and our elderly dying as a result. Listening to the evening news, it was noted that there were 30,600 cases of flu in Missouri alone putting us in the top States combating this virus. Our family certainly struggled with it through Christmas and into the month of January. It was also sad to watch the school children cope with the disease that would come, leaving a cough behind and then sometimes a recurrence. Makes me wonder why people doubt the phenomena of "global warming," when it is so clear that something is shifting with the weather patterns and their impact on our environment, our health and changing farming patterns.
My New Year's Resolutions this year were fairly simple. It's my firm belief that keeping things simple as I age will be the best way to ensure that they are done. The first one was to start speaking out when wrong and unethical things occur and to not be a part of a Silent Majority who will allow democracy to be twisted and used for the benefit of the "few". Still believe in the adage that Government "for the people, by the people" is the best system, but it is clear our system is broken. My second resolution was to try and keep my health at a better level than it has been since moving here four years ago by trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle. It is my wish not to be a burden on those that I love as I enter my "golden years."
As a result of the first resolution, it was my decision to attend a Lobby Day hosted by the Missouri Rural Crisis Center (MRCC) in early January. Several focuses of the visit to our elected representatives in the State Capitol was to encourage legislation to preserve and defend local control in rural communities, as well as to put a limit on foreign ownership of our Missouri farmlands. Do we really want other countries controlling our food resources? It does not seem like a wise move to me or others who believe in sustainable and independent agriculture.
Finally, lobby day participants were encouraging the Senate to halt an egregious act of our Governor Eric Grietens whereby changes were made in silencing the people's voice on the important Clean Water Commission (CWC) by replacing experienced and independent commission members with new members who have clear ties to the industrialized farming lobby. Without confirmation by the Senate, these new members took action immediately to approve out-of-state corporate factory farms to be built in rural Missouri despite strong community opposition in the areas impacted. These new members are up for vote soon (within the next few days, actually) by our Missouri Senators who can stop this unfair action by the Governor by refusing to allow these commission members to be seated. Two things need to be put into action: The Senate voting NO and rejecting Governor Grieten's pro-factory farm appointees; then the legislature should change the law back to have the public's voice once again on the Clean Water Commission. If you wish to do something, please contact your State Senator now and ask him or her to vote NO on these new appointees and encourage changing things back to the more fair makeup of the CWC. Clean water is something that we have come to take for granted. Having travelled in the Far East, Pacific Rim and Latin America, I can tell you that we are lucky to have the amazing waterways in this State. They should be protected and preserved or we will end up like many third world countries with the disease and other plagues that the lack of clean water can create.
If you feel like you want to get involved and make your voice be heard, participate in the next Lobby Day scheduled for Valentine's Day - February 14, 2018 - by contacting Brian at the Missouri Rural Crisis Center (MRCC). You can find more information by checking their website at:
A recent Letter to the Editor in the Joplin Globe about the CWC called attention to how important it is to take action and call your Senators today about these new appointees. Please read it and take action if you feel compelled to maintain the clean water in our rural communities. Click on the link and you will find the phone number of the State Capital switchboard. Ask to be connected with your Senator and ask that they VOTE NO on Grieten's appointees. This confirmation may take place before February 3, so act today.
- Joplin Globe, 1/18/2018
Moving back to my first resolution, something happened in the hallways of the State Capitol that I thought would never happen in these times, especially now that young women are speaking out about sexual harassment in the workplace. It gives me great hope that my grandnieces will not have to endure the embarrassment of ever being put in such situations. I'm of an age where my parents taught me to respect elected governmental officials but to know that they should be held accountable to a certain set of ethical standards and morality. I also participated in the women's liberation movements in the 1970's to try and ensure "equal pay for equal work." After college, I worked for a large radio station in Springfield and went on to jobs in large corporations in marketing services and communications. I did my best to ensure that ethical standards were kept in the ad campaigns that I worked on both in the ad agencies and companies that I represented. And my radio news stories reported and written by me were verified and fact checked before they ever made it on the air. Back then, Walter Cronkite was my hero, so were Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein along with their publisher at the Washington Post, Katherine Graham and Executive Editor Ben Bradlee.
Stories in the daily news have changed my point-of-view greatly. I see little to respect among many politicians. Many of them behave like pigs themselves. Lobbyists run free and even sometimes author the legislation going through our Congressional Chambers. Knowing that respect should be earned and not given freely, my stance as an Independent Voter has been strengthened by seeing partisan interests take precedence over the people's interests. While visiting various State Representatives' offices, our group had one very positive interaction with one of the legislative assistants who listened carefully to our points, took our information and allowed us to move forward. Other newly elected representatives and senators who took the time to speak to our group resurrected my faith and hope that perhaps there were people taking positions that would save our natural resources in Missouri.
Suddenly, we were stopped in the hallway by an elderly gentleman that I later found out was Representative Warren Love (R) of the 125th District. He started talking about his days on a farm before he became a politician. It was easy for me to see that he was winding up for a "hallway filibuster" to detain our group. Since I'd been standing for a good part of the morning handing out flyers in front of the House Chambers and having a rather bad knee, I decided to break off from our group and go rest my sore joint for a moment while he regaled the group with his tales of "when I was a farmer and had a few pigs on my small farm". I could tell that this guy was full of hot air, out of touch with what was going on now with small independent farming operations and intent on delaying the progress of our group. While resting my knee, I got into a conversation with a farmer who reminded me a lot of my father and who had practiced farming "the old fashioned way" for years. Time slipped away and I didn't make it back to the group. My forte is really to talk to people to help them understand legislation coming through the channels -- after all my job before retirement was in communications and marketing services.
When my group returned to the tables, the person that I'd ridden with to Jefferson City said, "I was looking for you. Where did you go?" I couldn't believe that my presence was that important since there were far more experienced folks in the group than me to talk about the issues - I was a "newbie" at this stuff. On the way home, he explained further. As I was not there when the next section of my story happened, I called several women in our group that I was fortunate enough to meet that day to get their take on what had happened and verify the facts. I'm now confident enough pulling out my old journalist's hat to relay the story to my readers confident in its accuracy.
It seemed that while Representative Love was recounting his days on the farm, he started talking about sows and delivering litters on his farming operation. He suddenly - apparently feeling his oats with a captive and polite audience - said something like "Well, you know how it goes with those old sows after they give birth, they go right back into 'heat' again. Now you ladies know all about that, don't you?" Add the "good old boy" chuckle to the end of this sentence.
My mouth fell open and my eyes flew up to my eyebrows in disbelief and I gasped! How dare him? How unbelievable rude? Then I understood why my companion who knows me darned well wanted me to have been there. There is no way that I could not have said something ... loudly and directly ... to this man who took advantage of his legislative position by hurling an insult at both the women AND experienced male farmers standing in that group! How could any intelligent voter put such an embarrassing, sanctimonious human being into office to represent their area? Power has obviously taken the humility from this person and many of our elected officials these days. This is not behavior to be respected. It is behavior that is out of tune with today's societal norms, but then I've been seeing worse things happen on television and in the news stories that I've been reading lately.
In later recounting the story to a friend who also supports environmental issues and takes trips to Jeff City to lobby for different causes, he told me that this same Rep. Love made a comment about the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) that he would like to "personally put a nail in the coffin of the HSUS" before he was out of office. What kind of ignorance drives such a statement to a group of voters? From the HSUS website, their focus is: "The HSUS seeks a humane and sustainable world for all animals—a world that will also benefit people." Any farmer knows that if you care for your flock or herd in a humane and sustainable manner, the animals will return that care by providing sustenance for hungry masses that is not full of hormones or carrying detrimental viruses like MRSA. It has been shown in independently funded studies that Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) often harbor and spread this virus to humans and other animals - it is airborne. One article by Maryn McKenna in the January 22, 2014 Science Section of Wired.com cited the correlation between this deadly disease and CAFOs. You can read the article by clicking on this link:
My own health has taken a downturn since the proximity of one of these operations is right around the corner from my own rural residence. One of the factors enabling this growth of CAFOs in the State of Missouri is the prevalent thought that corporations are now "individuals" with the rights of an individual. Having worked for several pretty large corporations, I totally disagree with this viewpoint. Corporations are legal entities created within the law to do business in specific areas.
In a book first published in 2002 called "UNEQUAL PROTECTION: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights" by Thom Hartman, in Chapter 21 End Corporate Personhood, he writes "...new laws controlling corporations aren't the ultimate answer. Instead what is needed is a foundational change in the definition of the relationship between living human beings and the nonliving legal fictions we call corporations. Only when corporations are again legally subordinate to those who authorized them -- humans, and the governments representing them -- will true change be possible."
People can make changes in their governments and corporations should be held accountable for their actions in a court of law. We truly need change to preserve the future for our children. As for Representative Love, my final comment is that he is indeed a "pig" for behaving in such a disgusting manner around the people who were there to exercise their rights to make their views known in our State Capitol that day. Hopefully, his constituents will recognize this behavior is unacceptable and he will not represent anyone in the future. It's time for him to "go back to the farm" and see what kind of changes have happened as a result of his poor representation. Pigs are intelligent animals, so I hate to insult them by putting Love in their company, but the human variety has a great deal to learn before they should be allowed in civilized company. He should know better than to sling mud on those poor sows or us.
It's always fun to leave on a lighter note. Sometimes, I laugh just to keep from crying. Here's one of my favorite signposts from social media these days:
Finally, I'd like to dedicate this song from one of my favorite groups to Representative Love and others like him whose "piggy ways" were certainly demonstrated clearly by his words and demeanor. Here's a more classical rendition of the Beatles' song written by George Harrison with appropriate visuals:
Until next time ... enjoy the view before it's gone.
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| "Looking Back on the Country that Was" Copyright 2018. Photoartdb. All rights reserved. |
And remember ... this is just one woman's opinion.
Comments are by the individual writing the blog and no other company, nonprofit or other organization has approved or endorsed them. Am not a scientist, so can't claim my own scientific research but just comment on what is happening around me. These words are my sole opinion and no one else is responsible for these remarks. Anonymous comments not accepted.
Stand up for your opinion.
Thanks for your thoughtful and kind responses.
Please keep language clean and our farmlands green.
